This research will develop a multi-level assessment instrument that will cover the major areas of functioning of older people and have a range of discrimination so as to make the instrument applicable to those of all levels of competence. An instrument was designed to measure physical health, intellectual functioning, personal adjustment, activities of daily living, social environmental supports, meaningful time use, and quality of physical environments through structured interviews. Parallel ratings were obtained from interviewers and from staff making ratings from the interview protocols. Subjects consisted of 615 older people from the community, from public housing, from home-delivered services rosters of social agencies, and from institutional waiting lists. Data are being analyzed so as to yield a set of alternative assessment packages of differing lengths for which reliability, criterion-group validity, internal validity, and predictive validity data are available. These measures of competence are in turn being used to test a model of time use and its relationships to morale, meaningfulness of activity, and environmental context.